Terminal Impact
Terminal Impact is a combat robot designed and built in 2001 by André and Andy Bardin (Twilight Foundry Robotics). Its main weapon was a spinning aluminum disc outfitted with padlocks on chain flails. The weapon was briefly replaced with a long lawnmower-style blade for one event, though when this proved unsuccessful the team went back to Terminal Impact's original configuration. The robot weighed approximately five pounds and competed exclusively at an open class combat event sponsored by a middle school outside of Corpus Christi, Texas. Terminal Impact competed in three events, winning its first and losing all but one of its subsequent battles afterward. Terminal Impact retired in 2002 and was placed into storage. It was severely damaged by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and is now no longer operational. A mostly intact (but still not functional) version of Terminal Impact was put on display at DARC Robot Rebellion 1.3 in September 2017. Robot History Battle Clash 2.0 Terminal Impact's first ever match was against Pannel, a large rectangular robot armed with wedges on all sides. Terminal Impact's disc began to spin up to speed and collided with Pannel, its padlocks smacking against its opponent in rapid succession. Pannel's cardboard armor absorbed most of the hits, however the robot was unable to push Terminal Impact away. Terminal Impact continued to beat on Pannel in various places and at one point Pannel began to experience mechanical problems and slowed down to a crawl. The match went to the judges who unanimously scored in favor of Terminal Impact. It's second fight was against DBM, a four-wheeled ram bot armed with sharpened steel forks. DBM proved to be a much more dangerous adversary than Pannel and was faster than Terminal Impact and was able to attack the robot from the back and sides, which were exceptionally vulnerable as this is where Terminal Impact's weapon batteries were kept. Terminal Impact managed to land several hits on DBM but was constantly pummeled in return. The fight was certainly in DBM's favor, however as DBM lined up a charge at Terminal Impact close to the arena wall the rammer inadvertently bounced up onto Terminal Impact's spinning disc and was thrown out of the ring. The match was stopped and DBM was disqualified over safety concerns, sending Terminal Impact on to the finals. The championship match was against The Impaler, a large metal box armed with two sets of galvanized steel ramming spikes whose overall chassis and weapon design was based upon BattleBots champion Vlad the Impaler. The Impaler was slower than DBM but slightly faster than Pannel and with noticeably more torque in its drive system. Terminal Impact locked heads with The Impaler using its wooden front bumper to cushion the blows and keep The Impaler at bay while its disc (loudly) racked up hits on the front of The Impaler's body. Both robots continued to show equal aggression until the end of the match. The judges turned in a split decision in favor of Terminal Impact largely due to the visible damage sustained by The Impaler. Terminal Impact was named champion of Battle Clash 2.0 and also received the event's "Most Destructive" award. Battle Clash 3.0 Terminal Impact returned for the following event as the reigning champion with a slightly new chassis configuration and sporting a new weapon in the form of a long spinning bar with a spike on either end. The robot was known as "Terminal Impact 2" for this event. Its first match was against Inferno, a short metallic box with an additional outer layer of chicken wire for armor and padding. Terminal Impact's blade began spinning up to speed, deflecting an oncoming charge from Inferno in the process. With its blade going fast enough to cause damage, Terminal Impact swung into the side of Inferno and pierced straight through its armor. The two bots became locked together with this hit and a tug-of-war ensued between Inferno and Terminal Impact as the rammer tried to break away. Upon finally separating Terminal Impact's blade started spinning up to speed once more albeit noticeably slower having been damaged by the struggle. Terminal Impact landed several more blows on Inferno, none of them as powerful as the first, and won on a judges' decision. A rematch against DBM, still the same as the previous event, was up next. The same troubles that Terminal Impact experienced against DBM at the last event were also present here except made worse by the fact that its weapon was still experiencing some problems stemming from all the twisting and yanking from the Inferno fight. Terminal Impact kept its back facing DBM in an effort to take several sacrificial hits in order to let its blade get up to speed. The robot managed one solid blow to DBM's front right wheel though this did not do much damage. DBM retaliated by colliding with Terminal Impact head-on, sliding up its blade like a ramp, and clipping the shaft collar at the center of the weapon. This knocked the collar off which resulted in Terminal Impact's weapon becoming virtually unusable. The judges unanimously scored this fight for DBM. Terminal Impact's last match was against Tantrum, an angular robot featuring a spinning drill at its front which was also capable of righting the robot in the event it was flipped over. After sustaining major damage to its weapon in the previous two fights Terminal Impact was largely unable to make a dent in Tantrum and although its blade connected with its opponent several times none of the hits seemed to cause any significant damage. Tantrum stayed on the attack and used its drill to cause a large amount of cosmetic damage to Terminal Impact's front bumper and in its aggression continuously entangled itself in Terminal Impact's PVC pipe frame. The match went the distance and the judges turned in a decision that favored Tantrum (who went on to become the event champion). Battle Clash 4.0 Between Battle Clash 3.0 and 4.0 Terminal Impact was rolled back to its original design (and name) from the 2.0 event, going back to its disc with two large teeth added to it instead of padlocks. Terminal Impact's first fight was against an upgraded Pannel in the form of Pannel III, still the same design but with more reliable internal components. Terminal Impact's disc revved up to top speed and as the robots met in the middle of the arena the new teeth on Terminal Impact proved to be exceedingly powerful as they sliced into Pannel's armor and tore away entire pieces of it. Terminal Impact retreated to allow its weapon to get running again with Pannel III in tow and as the spinner banked a turn in the corner of the ring Pannel III plowed into it head first. The impact destroyed the front end of Pannel III and also spun Terminal Impact completely around. Pannel III, critically damaged, dragged itself away from the hit, but Terminal Impact was rendered inoperable and was counted out. This would end up being Terminal Impact's last ever match as the team forfeited their loser's bracket fight with MIST. Although it only had one official fight at this event, Terminal Impact was again named the "Most Destructive" robot. Wins/Losses Wins: 4 Losses: 4 Category:Robots from Texas Category:Champions Category:Robots armed with Chain Flails